Contenu du sommaire : Variations & hommages

Homoxi: gold rush in Yanomami Indian territory of the Upper Rio Mucajaí (Brazil)The Yanomami people constitute an Amerindian society of hunter-gatherers and horticulturalists who practise shifting slash-and-burn cultivation. They occupy a territory of about 192 000 km2 situated between Brazil and Venezuela, on either side of the Serra Parima mountain chain. From about 1910 to the 1960s the Yanomami of Brazil had only sporadic contact with the “white” world. Their first more frequent contact came in the period from 1973 to 1976, during the construction of a section of the Perimetral Norte highway in the south-east part of their territory. After a decade of relative respite, the Calha Norte project (1985-1986) and then, especially, the Roraima gold rush (1987-1989), quite abruptly intensified the advance of Brazilian regional society onto these Indians' territory, triggering strong protests in Brazil, and also in the world beyond. These reactions led to the official recognition of their land, in 1992, in the form of a protected area of 96 650 km2, the Terra Indígena Yanomami. The following years saw the setting-up of a health care system, rudimentary and unsteady at first but which progressively became more efficient. This made a resumption of this ethnic group's population growth possible. In spite of these successes, in the regions where the impact of illicit mining was most intense, since the end of the 1980s the local Yanomani groups have experienced profound social and economic changes. Hard hit from both the demographic and environmental points of view, they put into practice a series of modifications of their traditional use of the forest as an adaptation to the presence of gold diggers, then in response to the assistance scheme set in place during the process of the latter's expulsion. This article examines an example of this variable geometry of Yanomami spatial strategies devised in response to contact, from a detailed study of the “Homoxi” region of the Upper Rio Mucajaí. Thus the Authors first describe the economic and geopolitical context of the region, in particular the gold rush in the state of Roraima at the end of the 1980s, which scientific literature has scarcely documented. They then focused down on a more local scale, looking at the history of three communities of the Homoxi region (Tirei, Xere u and Yaritha, whose populations at the time of the field survey totalled just 360 people) and the process involved in the changes to their spatial and productive model, first in the face of the invasion of gold panners, then, after the latter had been evicted, in response to the local assistance scheme that was set up (FNS, FUNAI). The Authors thus bring out the flexiblity of the Yanomami social system and its ability to adapt quickly to the most adverse situations.

30 years old and still single: an emerging category in Algeria
In Algerian society, marriage traditionally is considered a virtually obligatory stage of any individual's life. Only 30 or so years ago, women married at 18 years of age on average. Men did so when they were 23. Now, marriage at a young age is exceptional and it is almost becoming the norm to marry later. In 2002, women and men married on average after 30 years of age. One out of three women and one in two men were still single at 30-34 years of age. This situation is true not only in the large urban areas but also in rural areas right across the country. This spectacular rise in the single life is associated with factors of modernization such as education, the effects of economic crisis and poverty, unemployment and scarcity of housing. It is also linked to changes in attitudes and the perception of marriage itself and the place of the individual and of the woman in the couple, the family and society.

Land: also an issue for the professionals. Examples from the 1990s in Algeria
Laymen and specialists alike often approach land-ownership questions in Algeria from the angle of the different forces at play and a notion that such questions are instrumentalized by national and local political powers. The latter are thus accused of misappropriating agricultural and other useful land for the benefit of particular interest groups or to satisfy doctrinaire decisions. Examination of what happened in this area in the 1990s prompts an adjustment of this viewpoint, however. What emerges is the influential weight of the professionals involved in application of procedures and decisions. Thus, beyond power struggles and political orientations, professional and bureaucratic mechanisms involved also play a prime role in deciding the course of actions of land policy and the way it is organized and implemented as a field of intervention.

The part played by individuals and collective organization in the appropriation of resources: the case of an Andean community in PeruIn a context of a rural farming community where relationships linked to land questions represent a complex mix of individual and collective rights, the ways in which resources are appropriated, along with changes in these resources, profoundly influence the sustainability of production systems. This article examines these interactions in the case of Sinto, an Andean community in Peru that results from a cooperative formed by agrarian reform and is now intensifying its dairy production systems. The Authors outline the historical development of the appropriation of resources, then use the land-ownerships control grid devised by E. Le Roy, which can distinguish several levels of control over resources (land rights regulations) and of collective authorities taking such resources under their control. These analyses help to pick out the adaptations taking place concerning the appropriation of resources. They can also spot crisis situations.